Head Chef

Young's; City Of London; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 63,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free meals

20% dining discount

30% discount on overnight stays

Share save scheme

Enhanced Pension Scheme

28 Days Holiday

Apprenticeship Scheme

Job summary

You will join Young’s as a Head Chef, crafting menus from seasonal produce and leading kitchen teams across our pubs. You’ll write recipes that reflect the local vision of each site and have autonomy to develop dishes that showcase premium, fresh ingredients.

The role emphasizes hands-on leadership, creative menu development, and close collaboration with the front of house to drive quality and growth across venues.

Qualifications

• Inspire a team and lead by example while developing, costing and producing fresh seasonal menus.
• Experience championing excellent service through quality food, either as Head Chef or Sous Chef.
• Ability to design and deliver new dishes and daily specials.
• Strong planning and organisational skills to control GP and labour.

Responsibilities

• Write and craft menus that match the venue's vision using seasonal produce.
• Cost and produce fresh seasonal menus for diverse revenue streams.
• Lead a kitchen team, mentor staff, and maintain health and safety standards.
• Drive sales and growth through kitchen/front-of-house collaboration.

Skills

Leadership

Team development

Hands-on cooking

Communication skills

Planning & organisation

Sales growth

Job description

Head Chef

About us

We’re always on the look out for talented Head Chefs for our businesses. You’ll have experience working with fresh food and running all aspects of a kitchen. Our Head Chefs write their own menus and create their own dishes using seasonal produce, allowing them to put their own stamp on the business. We have sites across South West London and beyond so if you’d like the chance to show off what you can do then apply now.

Being a Head Chef at Young’s

We believe every pub should be different. This means that you’ll be writing your own recipes that match the food vision of your business using fresh seasonal ingredients. The food vision could be all about showcasing local produce, country pub classics, seafood, small plates and sharers, dry‑aged meat – each pub is different and it’s up to you as head chef to put your own creative stamp on that vision. We work with fresh, seasonal produce, so the menu should constantly evolve to showcase these fantastic ingredients when they are at their best. Premium fresh food crafted by skilled chefs in Premium Pubs.

What we offer our Head Chefs

• Head Chefs get to have full autonomy to create your own menus and specials
• Access to our Apprenticeship Scheme and Development Programmes
• Access to regular culinary masterclasses covering topics such as Game, Butchery and Shellfish
• Access to inspirational food trips with our top quality suppliers
• Regular Chef Forums with other Head Chefs to inspire and develop
• Free meals
• 20% discount in all Young’s Pubs and 30% discount on overnight stays in our Pubs with Rooms
• Share save Scheme
• Enhanced Company Pension Scheme
• 28 Days Holiday per year

What we look for in a Head Chef

This role requires someone that can inspire a team, to bring out the potential and lead by example whilst being able to develop, cost and produce fresh seasonal menus for the variety of revenue streams within the business.

• Have experience championing excellent service through quality food either as a Head Chef or in the position of Sous Chef
• Demonstrate a passion for leading and developing a team
• Be an active hands‑on team player with excellent communication skills
• Be responsible and able to manage the kitchen staff rota, training and all health and safety effectively at all times
• Be able to demonstrate your creativity and ability to design and deliver new dishes for our menus and daily specials
• Demonstrate great planning and organisational skills, necessary to maintain effective controls with regard to both GP and labour
• Have a pro‑active approach to driving sales and delivering growth, through engagement with both kitchen and front of house teams